The science of optics was particularly important in the first half of the 17th century, the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic. This interest in lenses and light extended to artists like Johannes (Jan) Vermeer, whose use of the camera obscura in the creation of his paintings, particularly The Music Lesson, is still debated by art historians.

The camera obscura is a box-like device that allows bright light to pass through a pinhole in a wall into a darkened interior where the outside image is projected upside down. The fact that light rays could pass through a pin hole was first recorded by Mo Ti, a 5th century BC Chinese philosopher. One hundred years later, Aristotle wrote on the questions he had about reflected light. The first recorded experiments with image formation was done by Arabian physicist and mathematician Alhazen, who concluded light projected from all surfaces of an object in a linear fashion.

During the Renaissance and Post-Renaissance, Dutch astronomers used the pinhole technique for astronomy. When a lens was first fitted into the pinhole, the resultant camera obscura, a name given to the device by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), was used as a drawing aid for artists. The name means "dark room", and was a tent or box with a lens aperture that artists used to draw landscapes. They accomplished this by going inside the tent or box and after attaching paper or painting surface onto the wall opposite the pinhole, would then trace the image projected onto the paper. In this way, an almost exact replica of the image could be reproduced.

The Dutch Renaissance, or Golden Age of the Dutch Republic, occurred in the first half of the 17th century. Dutch people were literate and valued books and reading. This had become a Protestant society after the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s, and the people believed in individual pursuit of Biblical truths rather than accepting the interpretations of the Roman Catholic Church. As such, equality and tolerance were important values in Dutch society. These beliefs resulted from humanism, a category of philosophy that was based on rationalism rather than pure spiritualism. Because of this tolerance, everyone was treated with respect regardless of social standing. This Dutch world view appeared in artwork created during the Golden Age.

Vermeer created only 35-36 paintings during his lifetime, and all are concerned with everyday life of the people. His use of light in his paintings fits with the scientific preoccupation with light and lenses, as well as the national humanistic stance of equality and tolerance for all people. The use of perspective had begun in Italy with Brunelleschi in the Italian Renaissance at least two hundred years before Vermeer used it in his work. One of the concerns of the Renaissance was accurate, realistic portrayal of subject matter, and belief in the individual, or humanism.

Some art historians believe Vermeer used the camera obscura to create his paintings, and others concede that although Vermeer might have used the apparatus, his realistic portrayal of the room and the figures in The Music Lesson came from careful planning, a sound understanding of perspective, and observation of his subject matter.


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